


familiarity breeds contempt

by SalviaOfficinalis



Category: Artemis Fowl (2020), Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: ...Technically, Alternate Universe, Canon Compliant, Fix-It of Sorts, Games Geniuses Play, Gen, Genius Artemis Fowl II, Genius Opal Koboi, Non-Linear Narrative, almost certainly, and in the sense of 'no evidence against it', but not for movieverse, more canon compliant to the books than the movie, one would think, which is rather obvious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24907984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalviaOfficinalis/pseuds/SalviaOfficinalis
Summary: The fairies are watching him. They always are. But familiarity breeds contempt, and by now, Artemis is certain that they have built up an entire psychological profile of him, complete with past childhood trauma and attachment issues.Honestly. He wrote acclaimed books on psychology, and, yet, they think that he cannot accurately imitate any of the mental health disorders they believe him to have. The very notion of it is ridiculous, but the average fairy has never been the smartest of creatures.Rather like humans, in that regard.At the moment, they think him to be a rather dull boy. In possession, perhaps, of an inimitable and rare intellect, but a child all the same. A normal child, though one with abnormal intelligence, who feels normal emotions, has normal goals, normal dreams, normal relationships…Artemis Fowl II has never beennormal, not in any sense of the word.Or: an attempt to reconcile the version of Artemis we see in the movie with the genius of the books, a.k.a. genius!movie!Artemis matching wits with a genius!movie!Opal.
Relationships: Artemis Fowl II & Opal Koboi
Comments: 9
Kudos: 57





	familiarity breeds contempt

**Author's Note:**

> the movie was bad. so. so. bad. if you haven't watched it yet, do yourself a favor, and don't watch it.  
> plot holes. terrible characterization. i think i would run out of character limit if i allowed myself to rant, so i won't.
> 
> Some lines of this are taken directly from the movie, but very few. Pretty much any dialogue, but everything else isn't.  
> (Yes, the dialogue is real. It's a tragedy.)
> 
> I'll edit this... later.

_All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players._

It is accurate, Artemis supposes. He and Koboi share that in common, if not more. Then, again, it might be more apt to classify the two of them as the playwrights, dictating the moves of unknowing characters who dance and bend to their whims.

They think that they are the ones in control. From their point of view, it may be a probably enough guess.

Just not enough of one.

The fairies are watching him. They always are. But familiarity breeds contempt, and by now, Artemis is certain that they have built up an entire psychological profile of him, complete with past childhood trauma and attachment issues.

Honestly. He wrote acclaimed books on psychology, and, yet, they think that he cannot accurately imitate any of the mental health disorders they believe him to have. The very notion of it is ridiculous, but the average fairy has never been the smartest of creatures.

Rather like humans, in that regard.

Artemis is one of a kind, unique. Koboi is his counterpart amongst the fairies, not quite able to match his mental abilities, but possessed of fairy technology and magic.

In another place, another time, perhaps they would match wits openly, competed for dominance as the rest of the world watched in awe and wonder.

Here, though, they simply do not. _Cannot_ , not in the eyes of the fairies and their famed LEPrecon, always watching with technology developed over the millennia.

There is, Artemis knows, a hidden camera underneath the lamp on the side table. A microphone tucked away in a book’s spine, another slipped into his clothing, and the others that he knows are there.

He does not look towards them. If the fairies knew _precisely_ how intelligent Artemis was… well.

At the moment, they think him to be a rather dull boy. In possession, perhaps, of an inimitable and rare intellect, but a child all the same. A normal child, though one with abnormal intelligence, who feels normal emotions, has normal goals, normal dreams, normal relationships…

Artemis Fowl II has never been _normal_ , not in any sense of the word.

* * *

When he first discovered incontrovertible proof of the existence of the fairies, at the tender age of three, Artemis’s first reaction was not shock. Nor was it awe, or any other typical emotion that he may have been expected to feel.

No, it was relief.

The fairies had technology that was far beyond anything within the limited capabilities of humans, and, therefore, within easy reach of Artemis. Oh, he accumulated a personal stash of fairy tech over the years and developed his own, but anything with the capabilities to place him on an equal level technologically would be nigh-impossible to obtain without alerting the fairies in some way.

Creating his own was a possibility, certainly, but the limited amounts of time he managed to glean away from his father and Butler, who Artemis refuses to call ‘Dom’ within the confines of his own mind, was further constrained by the fairy recording devices covering the mansion.

And, yet…

The fairies were, quite frankly, idiots. Yes, they had their outlier geniuses, Opal Koboi and Foaly, but the vast majority of them, including many of their so-called ‘tactical geniuses’ and commanders, had no sense of the power they truly wielded.

The Aculos, with the power to transform the weakest fairy who could barely perform the Mesmer, into one capable of casting any spell they so desired. The time-freeze, complete with biometric signatures so that only designated LEPrecon members could move freely within its confines. The Neutrino 2000, standard-issue weapon, with transforming shape and capabilities to generate matter.

All of them, wasted.

He has to be careful; he knows that. If the fairies had realized the extent of Artemis’s intelligence and planning, there would have been no time-freeze of the outside world, containing Fowl Manor to its personal time bubble, not when they could have frozen the Manor, instead, and retrieved Short with little fuss.

In the end, though, the fairies simply grew complacent. And in the face of it, even the fairies’ technology could do nothing.

Artemis clicks on the jammer. It will run for fifteen minutes, feeding a simulation of himself reading in his room to the fairy recording devices. As he passes through the house, it will set those devices on a loop, allowing him to reach the forest without a trace.

Six of his allotted fifteen minutes are gone when he arrives at his destination. He bends down and picks up the still-crackling, metallic hexagon. It is in remarkably good shape, with only the dented plate on the underside to indicate that it was ever damaged. Butler is a good shot, he notes distantly, even when the bodyguard isn’t aware of the overarching goal.

Artemis allows himself a small, cold smirk and walks back to the Manor proper with the time-freeze tucked under his arm.

* * *

Koboi knows how to play the game. “You have three days,” she tells him. Three days until she kills his father. Three days until she removes one of Artemis’s pieces from the board, a carefully positioned rook.

So easily maneuvered. Castled to protect the king. Artemis prefers to think of himself as a queen, capable of crossing the board in a single move and superior to the other pieces, but he is the most critical of them all.

If Artemis is captured, the game ends.

The loss of his father would not be devastating, not a deadly blow, but it would be a dangerous one, a loss that could easily cripple Artemis if he is not careful.

Without Artemis Fowl I, the human authorities will be easily manipulated by Koboi to drive Artemis to either go underground or enact his backup plan, which will, in both cases, reveal him to the fairies. If Angeline Fowl were still around… but Artemis sacrificed his other rook a long time ago.

Fowl Manor would belong to Artemis, legally, along with all the other possessions and heirlooms of the Fowls, but in the eyes of the law, he would require a guardian, and Artemis cannot accept the oversight that would require.

It is, he acknowledges, a smart move. Both of them must move through intermediaries, controlling their pieces, only moving themselves, the kings, to prevent certain moves, and, as a result, control the game.

Artemis wants to laugh, almost. _My enemies have prevented me from retrieving it myself_. A subtle jab at the both of them, Koboi’s reminder that he cannot afford to act directly, either. If Artemis plans to strike, he must do so through the fairies, all without revealing himself.

He adopts a mask of emotion with familiar ease, fear obvious in his expression, and worry in his voice. LEPrecon has every phone in Fowl Manor bugged and cameras placed to catch each angle without blind spots. They will know, within a matter of hours, if that, and his next actions will spur them into motion.

Holly Short. A neutral piece, in a way, that either of them can use. Artemis slides his bishop forward to capture her.

_Your move, Koboi_.

* * *

Despite its power, the Aculos is not the end goal for Artemis or Koboi, not really. Artemis is incapable of using it himself, and if Koboi used it, she would immediately attract attention from the entire fairy world, defeating the entire purpose of their puppet-mastered game.

The Aculos is, at heart, a playing chip. A piece that passes between the two of them, a beacon that draws the focus of the fairies.

It is, though, laughable, in a way, how the fairies take it back so easily, with no understanding of its true value. Some of them do understand it, maybe, but they will never be willing to use it to its full potential.

No, what Artemis and Koboi are playing for is _control_. If either of them can expose the other, force their enemy out into the open, allowing them to remain in the shadows, working unopposed…

Complete control, nothing more and nothing less. Not that there is anything more than complete control to even have, but Artemis feels obliged to complete the idiom.

It isn’t the only reason that they compete. They’re puppet masters, the two of them are, controlling their pieces with strings from behind a curtain. In many respects, it’s a game to the two of them, a game that geniuses play with each other to stave off boredom.

No one can match a genius’s intellect besides another genius.

Artemis isn’t about to lie to himself and say the end reward isn’t his main goal, though.

* * *

He knows exactly what Short expects to hear, wants to hear. The probability that she hasn’t already built up a mental image of him as a withdrawn, lonely, child genius is slim to none.

After all, he _did_ play it up for her on purpose.

Artemis smiles, wide, innocent, trusting. If Short were more skilled, more practiced at reading expressions, perhaps she would notice the way it doesn’t reach his eyes, the way it feels cold and calculating.

Then, again, perhaps not. Artemis wrote most of the books the LEP probably trained her on for personal interaction.

“Forever friends.”

Short doesn’t disappoint him. Trusting, oh, so trusting, seeking out companionship in someone that she considers to be ‘like her’. Dead mothers, infamous fathers, lonely, isolated from their peers…

Honestly, manipulating Short is almost too easy.

* * *

Foaly, Artemis thinks, suspects something. The centaur is far too intelligent, too perceptive and rebellious, to not have noticed Artemis and Koboi’s little game.

The tech genius is, likely, asking himself why Koboi simply didn’t retrieve the Aculos herself and use it. Why, if she wanted it so badly, she left Artemis seemingly to his own devices to retrieve it when he should have, by all measures, failed with the information she gave him. Why Koboi didn’t simply mesmer the elder Fowl into revealing its location and how to obtain it. Why, why, why.

Most of those involved in the game will never notice. They are far too gullible, easy to deceive and to manipulate, simply not intelligent enough.

Foaly, though, is a genius not quite on par with Koboi, who, in turn, is not quite Artemis’s match, but his paranoia that the centaur possesses in spades more than makes up for it when it comes to spotting discrepancies.

He isn’t about to _reveal_ it, of course. The centaur knows quite well the Fairy Council’s opinions on so-called ‘paranoiac ideas’ like this one, and even if he should manage to convince someone, Artemis and Koboi would simply bury the information again.

None of that changes the fact that Foaly _knows_ , now. Perhaps he only suspects, only is suspicious, but he is going to dig. And when he digs, searching desperately for the truth, he will find answers.

Artemis would rather like to persuade Foaly to his side. The technology and position that the centaur holds would be invaluable in gaining an upper hand on Koboi. While the same is true in reverse, of course, Artemis doesn’t exactly think that Foaly is chomping at the bit to join a fairy traitor working against Haven.

Artemis, at least, isn’t actively working against the fairies. They’re simply more of an… afterthought, important pieces to achieve his final goal, but not part of his goal themselves.

Foaly would make a very nice addition to Artemis’s forces, indeed.

* * *

His father, for the scion of a lineage of geniuses aware of technology beyond human imagination and with the awareness of a secret world of fairies, was a fool.

Or, rather, his familial relationship with Artemis made him into a fool.

The man smiled at Artemis’s cries of “Dad!”, called him “son” in return, showed him open affection and didn’t even bother to hide the supposedly ‘secret’ basement from his son, not in any way that would stop a Fowl.

He was a fool, though, most of all, to believe Artemis.

_I don’t know_ , Artemis would say, blinking up innocently in response to a logic problem.

_It looked nice_ , he answered, as to why he purchased a book by one Violet Tsirblu, a secret pseudonym of his.

And, most of all…

_Fairies aren’t real._

It was to Artemis’s advantage, certainly. He simply…

Artemis almost expected better of the man who called himself his father.

* * *

“You failed, Opal. You were wrong,” Artemis says. He pauses, before adding in some meaningless platitudes for whichever LEPrecon operative is currently listening to their conversation. The important part, though, he says carefully and deliberately, “About everything.”

Koboi plays a good game, true, but Artemis is _better_.

She throws empty threats at him, false words they both know mean nothing, not when Artemis has just revealed her identity to the officer on the Haven side of the conversation.

And, really, Artemis has made quite the gains from this most recent confrontation of theirs. His father is returned, courtesy of one Holly Short, Opal is revealed, and his technological gains are nothing to be dismissed.

All he has to do now is drive the knife in where he knows it will hurt the most, to reveal something about himself in exchange for what he revealed about her, but a fact that the LEP will never believe.

“I’m a criminal mastermind,” Artemis says and snaps the phone shut with a smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading through to the end! Drop me a kudos if you liked it please, or a comment, a bookmark, whatever!  
> (If you watched the movie and hated it, please talk to me. Or if you liked it! I'm open to discourse.)
> 
> It... I swear it almost physically hurt to write "time-freeze" instead of "time-stop". Painful, I tell you, painful. The DNA thing technically wasn't in the movie, and it makes more sense for it to be the LEP suits, but it wasn't stated either way, and it needed to work like that for Artemis to actually be smart. Frankly, I'm slapping a patch job onto this swiss cheese of a movie and hoping it doesn't fray at the edges. Chalk up any further discrepancies to that.  
> (So... many... plot holes...)
> 
> My Tumblr can be found at [this link](https://salviaofficinalis-writes.tumblr.com/) for posts about the movie and just stuff in general!


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